Monday, November 12, 2007

At this stage of the game, it should hardly come as a surprise that the Harper government is talking a big game about "changing the way things are done in Ottawa", but actually doing nothing of the sort. The latest insult to our collective intelligence comes in the form of Kory Teneycke, a former industrial lobbyist who has just been hired by the Conservative caucus.

I guess check-mark #4 is more CPC bullshit in action. As noted by the Harper Index, the revolving door between lobbyists and the Conservative Party continues to spin wildly. According to an article in the Star:

Kory Teneycke, the former executive director of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, was hired this fall to lead the Conservative research bureau, which prepares talking points for Tory MPs and digs up dirt on the opposition....The latest in a long list of examples includes a senior member of Environment Minister John Baird's staff and a member of Public Works Minister Michael Fortier's staff, who both recently left to work as lobbyists in Ottawa....Teneycke contributed $1,000 each to five different Tory candidates – all successful – in the final week of the 2006 election campaign, according to Elections Canada records. Among the recipients was MP Gerry Ritz, now the federal agriculture minister and the man responsible for fostering Canada's biofuels industry.

Oh, and apparently he's a "pal" of Stephen Taylor's. Anyways, I don't particularly give a rat's ass about Teneycke himself. After all, as I'm sure the BT's will be quick to point out...but, but, but, the Liberals did it too!!! Boo, hoo, hoo, hooooo....The point, however, is that when Harper goes through the trouble of making a fancy little check mark on his party website and traipses around crowing about cleaning up lobbyist/politician relationships, he might reasonably be expected to do as he says. Or not.